EVOLUTION IN PROFESSOR HUXLEY. 331 



ence of evil is incompatible with the existence of an omnipotent 

 and infinitely beneficent Cause. 



But, assuming the existence of evil to be to us inexplicable, we 

 are but thereby landed in a choice of difficulties, between which, 

 it seems to me, no rational man should for one moment hesitate. 



One difficulty is the existence of a complex Cosmos, which 

 could never have been naturally selected, and whereof intelligence 

 and goodness (in ourselves) form part, without an adequate cause 

 i. e., without God.* To regard this non-theistic view as a pos- 

 sibility is, in my eyes, the acme of irrationality. 



The other difficulty is the possible accord with God's infinite 

 goodness, of evil, permitted for purposes we can not conceive of, 

 and due to attributes higher than, though not inconsistent with, 

 beneficence. How any one, who has not the presumption of pre- 

 tending to understand what God is, can really find this second 

 difficulty a serious one, is to me amazing. 



Christianity can supply not only an explanation but also a 

 profound consolation for the troubles of this life, and mere ordi- 

 nary experience shows us that things we have now and then 

 desired would, if obtained, have been baneful for us, as also that 

 apparent evils have been blessings in disguise. Prof. Huxley, 

 indeed, very truly says : f 



That there is a " soul of good in things evil " is unquestionable; nor will any 

 wise man deny the disciplinary value of pain and sorrow. 



On this we have often insisted ; but none the less we are from 

 asserting that ours is the best of all possible worlds. All I would 

 affirm is that God must have created a Cosmos such as to respond 

 most fitly to the intention of a Being infinite in intelligence and 

 goodness, but also possessing attributes of which we can have no 

 conception whatever. 



Heartily do I echo Prof. Huxley's denunciation of the words, 

 " Whatever is, is right," as opposed to all our noblest aspirations, 

 and most true is his remark \ that 



To the man with an ethical ideal, the world, including himself, will always seem 

 full of evil. 



But the teaching of the lecture, as a whole, is a depressing one. 

 Many years ago Prof. Huxley taught * that in " sadness " lay " the 

 essence of all religion," and little comfort is to be gained from his 



* As to " Natural Selection " in this relation, and as to adequacy and the eternity of the 

 Cosmos and its Cause, see On Truth, chapter xxvi, pp. 450-499. 



j- [December Monthly, p. 182.] His difficulty rather concerns the merely animal world. 

 As to this question, space does not allow me to do more than refer my readers to my book 

 On Truth, p. 471. 



\ [December Monthly, p. 182, note.] * Lay Sermons (1870), p. 15. 



